Dirt bike sales way down

 Overheard from dealer who went to Long Beach International MC show.  He said
Yamaha rep was expressing disappointment in their dirt bike sales which used
to be good.  Appears when gas nearly hit $5 a gallon, all the people who
owned or were planning to buy trucks to get their dirt bikes somewhere
vanished.

He also noticed a flood of scooters at the show, some from manufacturers
he's never heard of.  Lots of bikes in the low cc range (<900cc) for
economy.

B~

 
It may just be that dirt bikes are a pure luxury item (nearly nobody uses
them for transportation), so people stopped buying them.  I'm going to guess
that visits to Disneyland are down, too.

 
Depends on region and brand. Yamaha dirt bikes (and dual sports) are
overshadowed by Honda, Kawasaki and KTM. Suzukis may be on a par with
Yammis. Many 'dual sport' their dirt bikes with kits (e.x.
BajaDesigns, etc) to make them street legal. But most are buying dual
sport bikes, such as the ever-popular KLR (even the 250cc is making a
comeback into the states) and DR650 (Suzuki). Sales of dual sports are
on the rise, as are choices in models.

Here in Texas, where many riders have Multiple Bike Syndrome, many
have a dual sport bike (from the manufacturer), dual sported dirt
bike, or plain old dirt bike, in their garages along with a more
street-worth bike. I know several riders with all three (and more). We
ride all year round on any surface, even through water, and dual sport
rides/events/competitions/what-have-you are common all year round.
I'll be out in the desert next week for two weeks on one myself.

I suspect that the demographics of dirt bike sales, and riding, varies
considerably. It's more popular in the southern and western states. Go
visit AdventureRiders forum (ADV.com) for a glimpse of what we do with
them. I doubt that Florida is a big state for dirt bike riding/sales
period.

 

900cc is "in the low range"?

 
heheh.....